Inori Roy

Doug Ford Is Trying to Control How Universities Operate | The Local Ontario’s Bill 33 mandates merit-based admissions and gives the province unprecedented power over university and college operations. Is it part of a broader right-wing crackdown on campuses?

As MPPs vote on Bill 33, check out @royinori.bsky.social's analysis of what it would mean for colleges and universities thelocal.to/bill-33-onta...

Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.

“If Stephen Glass and the other late 20th century fakers were looking for the prestige and power that came with journalism in that moment, then this generation’s internet scammers are scavenging in the wreckage of a degraded media environment” #longreads thelocal.to/investigatin...

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." You will want to read this investigation on how The Local's Nick HUne-Brown uncovered what seems to be an ambitious AI journalism scam that's hit major publications worldwide.

Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.

A few months ago @thelocal.to got a promising pitch from a writer with bylines in whole bunch of reputable publications—The Cut, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, etc. Then I started investigating. Here's a story about fabulists in journalism's AI slop era. thelocal.to/investigatin...

Have you read the final story in The Local's Higher Education issue? Olivia Bowden digs deep on how U of T handles sexual violence allegations eight years on from the Me Too movement.

"Today, we are all witnesses. But the assumption that once gave value to the act of witnessing has proven to be completely untrue when it comes to Palestine."

“The people who were removed today are our friends and our community...They are people who have already suffered a tremendous amount of trauma and displacement, and who have now been subjected to the same again.” Essential reporting from Eric on one of the most morally urgent crises of our time.

Early-Career Journalism Fellowship The fellowship provides one Black and/or Indigenous journalist an opportunity to write about issues that matter to their community and civil society.

Applications for our Early-Career Journalism Fellowship are now open! The fellowship, a joint undertaking with @thephilanthropist.ca, provides one Black and/or Indigenous journalist an opportunity to write about issues that matter to their community and civil society. thelocal.to/early-career...

Cover to Cover: A Mini Magazine Conference Join us for a one–day conference that celebrates the people, ideas, and stories shaping magazines today.

Looking forward to this Sunday's Cover to Cover magazine mini-conference, hosted by Issues Magazine Shop! I'll be talking about assigning with care with Stacy Lee Kong,
Jalani Morgan, and Nichole Jankowski. Tickets at the link! www.eventbrite.ca/e/cover-to-c...

In reading about the murder of fifty-nine-year-old Kenneth Lee, journalist @royinori.bsky.social sometimes found the use of the term “swarm” melodramatic. Then she saw the footage of the girls who attacked him. thewalrus.ca/why-did-a-group-...

Alberta’s education system has become the latest front in a growing political and ideological struggle. Journalist @melwoods.me investigates how far-right movements mirroring those found in the US have made their way into classrooms north of the border: thewalrus.ca/the-battle-brewi...

Why Did a Group of Teenage Girls Kill a Man in a Downtown Toronto Parkette? | The Walrus Inside the crime that shocked a city—and the courtroom drama that followed

Despite being a huge fan of pulp, hardboiled, gritty crime fiction and noir films, books, comics and games, I’m not usually into true crime stories but once in a while an event like this comes along that fascinates me

thewalrus.ca/why-did-a-gr...

It's unusual for journalists to publicly thank one another but I would be remiss if I didn't also thank Jennifer Pagliaro (@j-pags.bsky.social) and Paola Loriggio, court reporting legends who were extraordinarily generous and helpful as I navigated my first ever court case.

This years-long story exists first and foremost becuase of the trust, support, and encouragement of my editor, the brilliant Dafna Izenberg, for whom I have infinite gratitude and awe. Many thanks to the team at @thewalrus.ca and to my excellent fact-checker Amarah Hasham-Steele.

Why Did a Group of Teenage Girls Kill a Man in a Downtown Toronto Parkette? | The Walrus Inside the crime that shocked a city—and the courtroom drama that followed

I thought they'd be girls exposed to violence, now committing it in turn. What I saw and learned in court, paired with insights from experts & laywers, helped me piece together a more complicated, uneasy reality, revealed only in fragments. Read the story: thewalrus.ca/why-did-a-gr...

Why Did a Group of Teenage Girls Kill a Man in a Downtown Toronto Parkette? | The Walrus Inside the crime that shocked a city—and the courtroom drama that followed

The case had all the makings of a moral panic: misinformation about the girls' social media presence & how they met, fears about random violence in Toronto. Some looked to blame and punish. The crime went from singular tragedy to political Rorschach test. thewalrus.ca/why-did-a-gr...

Why Did a Group of Teenage Girls Kill a Man in a Downtown Toronto Parkette? | The Walrus Inside the crime that shocked a city—and the courtroom drama that followed

Lee was stabbed just past midnight on Dec 18, 2022, in a vicious attack by eight girls aged 13-16. The teens had been drinking & smoking weed in the hours before the swarm, and had been fighting with people all evening as they travelled south on the subway line. thewalrus.ca/why-did-a-gr...

This is a story in which the vulnerable hurt the vulnerable. It's about power, attention, and group violence. It's also a story of race, girlhood, substance use, and growing up during COVID. I wrote about the killing of Kenneth Lee by eight teenage girls in downtown Toronto. A thread:

@nickhunebrown.bsky.social's feature epic about Woodbine racetrack is about so much more than just the storied establishment. It's a comprehensive look at the past & future of gambling, the romance of the races, how bettors get their thrills now, and changing perceptions around animals as assets.

Another Year, Another Encampment, Another Eviction | The Local For years, unhoused people like Davit Sesisheili have gone from park to park, moving when the City evicts them. With new data, and reporting and photography that spans years, this is the most comprehe...

In light of the encampment clearings at Dufferin Grove Park, it's worth revising this stellar piece by @brendoherty.bsky.social and Nick Kozak in @thelocal.to thelocal.to/toronto-enca...

Love to see my @thelocal.to story on Ontario horse racing make the @longreads.com weekly Top 5!

I admire all of @thelocal.to reporting, and this piece on Woodbine racetrack is a banger. I love horse racing, even though it's a pretty dark sport. @nickhunebrown.bsky.social confronts the darkness, the economics, and the doomy shadow over the backstretch. Great writing too!

Breakdown at the Racetrack | The Local Once a lucrative gambling business, Ontario's horse racing industry is now heavily subsidized by the government. As gamblers turn to online gaming, and ideas about animal welfare shift, a cluster of f...

A quick 🧵 on my @thelocal.to feature on Woodbine Racetrack, the economics of horse racing, and how to think about racehorses as ideas about animal-human relations shift. #longreads 1/ thelocal.to/breakdown-at...

The Future, According to the Class of 2026 | The Local We spent our teen years under COVID lockdowns, and now face an uncertain path shaped by climate change, AI, and shifting geopolitics. But my fellow students and I are holding out hope for better days ...

Local fellow Moyo Lawuyi went looking for a temperature check on the class of 2026's outlook for the future. What she found was unexpected optimism, and resilience: thelocal.to/the-future-a...

On Canadian campuses, Chinese students are offered new opportunities to protest or openly criticize the Chinese government - but they also fear the fallout back home. Local fellow Vikram Nijhawan has put years of thought into this story about the risks facing a new generation finding their voice:

What Happens to TDSB’s $20 Billion Worth of Land Under Provincial Supervision? | The Local The TDSB is one of Toronto’s largest landowners. When the province took over the board, it also took over its subsidiary that manages its properties—and it’s not saying what’s next.

The Toronto Lands Corporation, the TDSB subsidiary that manages the school board’s $20 billion-worth of land, had ambitious plans for Toronto’s new communities. What will happen to that real estate, now that the province has taken over? thelocal.to/tdsb-takeove...

Why Chinese Student Activists Live in Fear on Canadian Campuses | The Local From death threats to surveillance and intimidation by their government, Chinese students at Canadian universities feel the chill of transnational repression.

This report on Chinese students in Canada fearing transnational reprisal for their activism here was so interesting, @thelocal.to does absolutely fantastic reporting thelocal.to/chinese-inte...

Wrote about the dire straits of York University, which like many in Ontario is cutting its programming and employee ranks down to the bone. For decades, York has brought higher education to some of the most disadvantaged communities in the GTA -- the loss of this would be incalculable.

Questionable spending choices, a repair backlog, layoffs and buyouts, shuttered programs. An incisive view from the inside at the fraught state of affairs at York University:

This is a really interesting and thorough article. A lot of what I’ve heard from people who work at and consult for York is made clear here. Great reporting.